December 11, 2005

JIMMY CARTER REDUX (via David Hill, The Bronx):

Democrats believe they can put Republicans on the defensive by articulating the public's sense of malaise and offering hope to erase it.

Democratic Party chairman Howard Dean has commissioned confidential polling and analysis that suggest candidates in 2006 and 2008 should frame their policies — and attacks on Republicans — around the context of community.

It seems to be the emerging message from a party that has been bereft of one.

"What's happening in this country is we're losing our sense of common purpose," Vilsack told Florida Democrats. "We're losing a sense of community."

Democrats aren't wrong that running on community is a good idea in America, just delusional in thinking that higher taxes, more government programs, secularism, and defeatist isolationism are what's meant by community and the American purpose.
Posted by Orrin Judd at December 11, 2005 4:22 PM

Hard to believe the Dems think they can win by telling the voters everything stinks when the evidence is mounting that, while not perfect, things are going pretty well. If they take that approach and things do indeed improve in '06 (troops out of Iraq, economy does well, gas/oil prices decline) the Dems are hurting.

Higher taxes....relative to your income if you are poor along with the privitization of all a life's necessities that the wealthy need not worry about.

More government programs....especially if they kill people, expand the power of the executive branch, make a quick buck at the expense of others, or further entrench the self-destructive politics of the two-party system.

Secularism....exclusively Judeo-Christian excepts thall shall not kill does not apply to potential terrorists located above strategically important land, charity is not a governmental virtue, Liberation Theologists can technically be called Communists, and everyone is free to intepret the Scripture the only way that the Party wants them to.

Defeatist Isolationism....It does not matter that the majority of the rest of the world feels like we are imperializing them, because, trust us on this one, the invisible hand of God's good capitalism will soon bless them as it has done by allowing Americans to live like ignorant pigs. Any century now, these priveleges should start trickling down.

Other than the first paragraph, which ignores the consistent shifting of the tax burden to the wealthy under this administration, this is almost exactly right. I have to admit that "Defeatist Isolationism," by which you seem to mean victorious globalisation, strikes me as something of a misnomer. These quibbles, though, pale in comparison to the very important truth you offhandedly throw into the mix. It deserves much greater emphasis than you give it: charity is not a governmental virtue.

It does not matter that the majority of the rest of the world feels like we are imperializing them, because, trust us on this one, the invisible hand of God's good capitalism will soon bless them as it has done by allowing Americans to live like ignorant pigs.

That's correct, it doesn't matter.

Empire occurs in one or both of two ways, a cultural takeover or a military takeover.

America IS achieving global cultural hegemony, but that's entirely voluntary.
Nobody is being forced to buy American cultural offerings, or to emulate Americans. If the people of the world thought that their own cultures were superior, then they wouldn't do those things.
However, they DO think of American culture as superior, to the vast outrage of the elites of other cultures.

Military affairs are another matter.
In war, as in sports, it's not attitude that counts, it's deeds and action.
If the rest of the world doesn't want to get crushed under America's futuristic steel boot, then they must successfully resist or deter us militarily.

However, many nations that might wish to resist lack the means to do so, having impoverished themselves through unwise societial choices, such as Russia and Communism, and the Arab Middle East and the rejection of higher learning.
Other nations have the means to resist, but not the will to do so, such as the rich and technologically-advanced but supine EU.

And, of course, most nations see the U.S. as a potential friend and ally, or at worst, not a military threat, for the simple reason that we have no reason to attack them.

As for Americans living like pigs, that's what capitalism does for societies: Makes them so filthy stinkin' rich that they don't have to care.

Why would any benevolent person deny those benefits to any peoples on Earth ?
Being fat & happy certainly beats being hungry and dying of easily-prevented waterborne illnesses.

For a bunch of ignorant, fat, stupid, lazy, peasants, we seem to have done pretty well, Grog.
Either (A) we aren't and you are woefully wrong; or
(B) we are evil, evil, evil and have dark powers you cannot even begin to fathom.

"... Democrats aren't wrong that running on community is a good idea in America, just delusional in thinking that higher taxes, more government programs, secularism, and defeatist isolationism are what's meant by community and the American purpose..."

What a crock! Not defending any political party since both spend like drunks but combining secular and defeatist is unfair since last time I checked, neither of the parties had a lack of either in great abundance.